In modern vehicles, such as cars, boats and airplanes, various types of cup holders are currently available on the market, which are intended to be mounted in the dashboard of the vehicle or in a central bracket arranged in the vehicle. Cup holders of this type are usually adapted to receive a beverage container, such as a mug, a can or a bottle.
It is very common for the cup holder to consist of a depression which is mainly circular in cross-section and which is adapted to allow the container to be easily inserted and accessed. With this type of adaption, the container is in most cases loosely arranged in the cup holder, which allows the container to move sideways or up and down as the vehicle moves. This is particularly obvious as the vehicle accelerates, when changing the direction or speed of the vehicle, or when the vehicle is driven on an uneven roadway.
In any of these situations, the container may easily fall out of the cup holder, which makes it possible for the beverage in the beverage container to leak out into the passenger compartment or splash onto a passenger. This type of leakage may cause stains on the passenger's clothes, the upholstery and/or other interior fittings in the vehicle. Also, if the beverage is hot, a direct contact with a passenger's skin may cause great discomfort.
A solution to this problem is presented in US20050082455, where the cup holder is provided with a circular elastic ring with an opening at the top which is arranged to have a diameter which is less than 90% of the diameter of a standard size beverage container. When inserting the beverage container in the elastic ring, the ring is stretched outwards and encloses the beverage container so that it will be kept in place.
A drawback of this device is, however, that it is not adapted to receive other objects than precisely circular objects, such as mugs, cans and bottles, and it is thus not suitable to place, for example, a mobile phone in the cup holder.